the frig blig

Last night I had the good fortune to catch the Lee Redfield Quartet at Lucid, a small jazz bar on the edge of the U district. When they cranked, they cranked, and when they wailed, they wailed. They played lots of traditional jazz standards, a few originals, and one Led Zeppelin tune.

It’s a treat to see this band live and up close. Each musician has chops and they create some tasty arrangements, although some of the old film and tv lines are a little cheesy.

(Disclaimer: I’m friends with two of the band members.)

Apple got free publicity today by announcing their newly updated line of iPods…but the one feature I’ve been waiting for is not in the new package. Mainly, I want an MP3 player which includes bluetooth so I can use the new wireless headsets to bop around listening to my tunes. So far, these headsets can only be used with cellphones. Since my music collection is rather vast, there’s no way it will fit into the paltry 4G in my phone. (And it might not be easy to play .flac and .ogg files on my N95, either.)

So I’m sticking with my bulky, clunky old iHP-140 until some smart manufacturer introduces a music player with both bluetooth support and serious storage capacity.

I was the fortunate recipient of a free ticket to Saturday night’s STS9 jam at the Showbox — my first STS9 concert. The warmup band was Blackalicious. STS9 performed two sets, the second one started a few minutes past midnight.

I shot the video clip with my phone; it’s from the last song of the second set prior to the encore. This was one of my favorite songs, if anyone knows the name let me know.

The weirdest thing about this band is how they all wear earphones and don’t look at each other while playing — I suspected that they were listening to a click track with recorded instructions on when to change key, when to stop playing, etc. I figured they’d be screwed if the earphones quit working.

On the positive side, their drummer is a human machine. And they hypnotize you into dancing, maybe with the bright lights. They got some pretty fabulous grooves going.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

This link was posted on Josh’s blog and it’s just so sweet I had to post it here on the Blig.

Q: How is playing guitar like shooting pool?
A: They’re both all about leave.

Viz. when playing guitar, in order to sound like less of a klutz and move smoothly to the next note or chord, the player needs to be thinking ahead about which fingers will be used in that next note or chord…and that means making sure those fingers are available by using other fingers now.

And when shooting pool, in order to sink more than a single ball, the player needs to be thinking ahead about positioning the cue ball to leave makeable shots.

Q: how is playing tennis like playing go?
A: they both can be approached using a certain style of play; i.e. keep making good returns or moves and wait for your opponent to make a mistake — then capitalize on it. With each mistake your opponent makes, he or she is more likely to try to overcompensate…to your advantage.

Bo Diddley died last week but his beat will be with us for quite some time to come.

I was learned about Bo during my stint with The Shakes in Tallahassee in the early 1980’s. I’d heard his name before but wasn’t aware of his seminal influence — viz. the Bo beat. It was used in so many great rock and roll songs it just seemed timeless, and in fact maybe Bo just channeled it first. But you know it. The songs I was familiar with at the time were ‘Who Do You Love’ (Quicksilver Messenger Service) and ‘Hand Jive’. There are countless others.

I was fortunate enough to see Bo perform live around that time, in an outdoor concert on a beautiful spring day on Florida State University’s infamous Union Green. He had his trademark box guitar, and his daughter played the crap out of the drums.

Hey, Bo Diddley! Thanks for everything. Be jammin wherever you be.

A month ago I decided to learn the song Misterioso on guitar, which seemed excruciatingly difficult but I figured if I could learn that one I could learn almost anything (and I’ve always loved those notes). I dutifully practiced it almost daily, and after 3 weeks it started sounding like the actual tune, and I started playing with alternate rhythms and figured out my own riff at the end and which blues chords sounded natural to transition into.

For my upcoming birthday, the fish paid for a couple of lessons from a real guitar teacher. My first lesson was a week ago yesterday, during which time I discovered when playing with my teacher that my guitar was at least a half-step out of tune. Upon returning home I tuned it to my trusty old pitch-pipe. An in-tune guitar is good, and I felt satisfied.

Since that first lesson I have been learning the notes — not that they’re called A, B, C etc., but which strings produce which pitches when plucked, etc.

Today the horrible realization struck me that the notes I’d learned to play Misterioso with are actually a half-step off! I quickly confirmed this by listening to the first few notes of Monk’s recording. Apparently I taught myself to play this piece in the key of f#. Which is very cool until you want someone to accompany you.

Of course this has occurred on the most fiendishly difficult fingering I’ve learned, and moving it down a half-step on the fretboard totally changes the fingerings. Should I relearn the piece in it’s true key, or stick with the key of f-sharp?

I recorded this video of my friend playing guitar on Thanksgiving 2007 and finally got around to editing it and posting it to youtube:

S asked her friends for tunes that, when heard, made them get up and dance. The list was begun with several of her own picks, and as I was anointed the compositor, I added a few of my own. Here then be the list:

13_step_boogie - martin sexton
ants_marching - dave matthews
burning_down_the_house - talking heads
dannys_allstar_joint - rickie lee jones
every_little_thing_she_does - police
fever - peggy lee
Funky Town - lipps
gloria - patti smith
go_go - galactic
grazin_in_the_grass - friends o distinction
im_gonna_be - proclaimers
jump_jive_an_wail - louis prima
misirlou - dick dale
PrettyGirls - brisbanes
stoned_soul_picnic - laura nyro
st_thomas - sonny rollins
the_angels_wanna_wear_my_red_shoes - elvis costello
you_can_call_me_al - paul simon
you_cant_always_get_what_you_want - rolling stones

I’ve been teaching myself to play guitar for the past few months. I try to play 15 minutes a day, although a workingman’s schedule doesn’t always permit. It’s tons of fun (although I can have hours of fun with almost any musical instrument).

Last night I dreamed I was playing a song on the guitar…I remember figuring out what would work for the chorus…I awoke and forthwith in groggy state, went to my guitar and played the song. I then found a piece of staff paper and wrote it out.

I was mightily pleased, I’ve dreamed compositions before but never for guitar. This bodes well for my future with the instrument I think.